Tuesday, August 31, 2010

We’re gonna open our home. We’re gonna see the harvest of the Kingdom of God on our couch. On our couch, we’re gonna see the Kingdom of God. We’re gonna see people go from death to life. We’re gonna see generations and legacies altered on our couch.” Just so you know, that’s why God gave you a couch.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

The U.S. Court of Appeals recently ruled that religious groups who primarily offer radio and internet worship services do not meet the IRS definition of church. .... In addition, the IRS has outlined 14 criteria for determining what is and and is not a church

I beseech, I entreat, I charge you to begin and continue the worship of God in your families from this day to the close of your lives... Consider family religion not merely as a duty imposed by authority, but as your greatest privilege granted by divine grace

Friday, August 27, 2010

The follow-up to The Trellis and the Vine is called The Archer and the Arrow. While it comes from Matthias Media, the same publisher, it is written by different authors: Phillip Jensen and Paul Grimmond.

students today love the idea of community. Do everything in your power to keep them loving the idea of community rather than loving their community. As long as they love their vision of community instead of loving the actual fleshly people around them, they will never have real community and they will stay far away from church.

Today, adolescence starts somewhere in the teen years and continues indefinitely. There is no foreseeable end. The problem with adolescence is guys don't know when they're ever going to grow up and be men, and no pressure is exerted on them to do so.

Consider this: In 1960, the vast majority of young adults had, by the time they reached 30, accomplished the five standard milestones used to measure adult status. These milestones include completing school, leaving home, getting married, having a child, and establishing financial independence. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, less than one-half of all young women reached these milestones by age 30 in 2000. Even more concerning — less than one third of all young men did.

So I'm giving this little video clip just to say that I really believe that Christians have to be loving, they have to be just, they have to be caring. In other words, the fruits of the Spirit really matter. We are not born again if we are not living differently than we would if we weren't born again. I just want to say that the doctrine of justification by faith alone, or imputation through union with Christ along the instrument of faith alone, is the best way forward in that.

That’s right, a significant number of professors are happy to have parents spend 18 years raising children, only to drop them off on the campus and head back home. These professors are confident that the four or so years of the college experience will be ample time to separate students from the beliefs, convictions, moral commitments, and faith of their parents.

Friday, August 13, 2010

...there are selfish reasons to date and God-honoring reasons to date. This [unmarried, cohabitating couple I know at work] is in a self-serving relationship: all the benefits, but none of the commitments and responsibilities of being in a marriage.

Youth pastors need to embrace a ministry of gospel proclamation and gospel equipping. We preach the gospel, we make disciples, and then we train those disciples to do the same. We get the students to the point where they say of our gospel work: “Hey, I can do that!” That is more exciting than Wii. The growth that comes through this is called “gospel growth.” And that’s better than kids coming just for the pizza.

- If there is a disagreement, we defend Calvinism before we seek unity in the Gospel.
- When asked to describe our theology, we define ourselves as a Calvinist more quickly than as a Christian.
- And perhaps the worst of all...when our hearts are more captivated by the points of TULIP than with the person and work of Jesus.

Spiegel clearly states his thesis: The real causes of unbelief and skepticism have more to do with the will than with reason. These causes are moral and psychological in nature. He says, no doubt to the ire of atheists everywhere, “For the atheist, the missing ingredient is not evidence, but obedience” (11).

Thursday, August 5, 2010

...the magazine is left with manhood being defined by what you individually consume, from clothes to technology to women.

Nonetheless, they proceed (boldly or foolishly, I don’t know) to fill the pages of the guide-that-isn’t-a-guide on manhood

One hundred and seventy pages later, I don’t know how to be a man. I learned some general life lessons and heard some nice stories about Tom Cruise and A.J. Jacobs’ kids, but I haven’t left the How to be a Man issue with any tangible instruction as to how to be a better man, let alone a better husband or father.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

the average American pastor delivers his sermon to 60 people each week. Yet during that same week, even mildly successful bloggers will reach a more sizable audience. Who has the greater influence, then?

Evangelical bloggers are not only able to gain significant influence, but are able to do so without scrutiny by a seminary, local church, or other ecclesiastical or institutional body. Indeed, some bloggers have found that their leadership on the web dwarfs the leverage they have within their local church (especially if they attend a megachurch).

I think churches have virtually no standard anymore and we need to start taking this very seriously. When you say “I do”, it means you did—till death do you part. We must realize that there is a biblical standard that has been ignored and it’s time for the Church to quit treating it so casually and answer the looming question: When is what Jesus said ever true? If we can’t even answer the question, we are in a really bad place.

Rosenbaum has no tolerance for theism, either. In fact, he basically accepts the atheistic rejection of any belief in a personal God. “Let me make clear that I accept most of the New Atheist’s criticism of religious bad behavior over the centuries, and of theology itself,” he asserts. “I just don’t accept turning science into a new religion until it can show it has all the answers, which it hasn’t, and probably never will.”

“Agnosticism is not for the simple-minded and is not as congenial as atheism and theism are.” Ah, so by implication, theism and atheism might be for the simple-minded, but it takes a higher intellect to be agnostic. How humble.

...when we try to attach our Holy Spirit crisis experience to the Scriptures, giving it a Biblical name and prescribing it for all Christians we cause needless strife, jealousy, division and harm to the church, which is God’s temple.

Nobody who belongs to a local church will say that it’s always easy to love fellow Christians who have been justified and yet continue to sin. At the same time, no Christian who knows himself believes it’s always easy for others to love him, either. And yet we’ve been called to love one another according to the example of Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. A maturing disciple of Christ learns to love when it’s hard and submit to the Word’s authority when we’re tempted to disagree.

Australia isn't the most godless nation on earth, but nor are we God's nation on earth. In Christian understanding, that title doesn't belong to any nation, but only to the rag-tag collection of God-botherers, who gather together from many nations, many backgrounds and many political persuasions as what we call 'church'.